


7 Times Diego Dropped & 7 People Who Took Care of Him

by ahargreeves (soufflegirl123)



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Diapers, Diego centric, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Good Brother Five, Good Brother Klaus Hargreeves, Good Brother Luther Hargreeves, Good Sister Allison Hargeeves, I am my own worst beta, I don't tag characters until they actually appear, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Non-Sexual Age Play, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Protective Luther Hargreeves, little!diego, protective five
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2019-11-21 04:56:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18137606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soufflegirl123/pseuds/ahargreeves
Summary: Diego copes by dropping into littlespace. When the others find out, they have their own ways of reacting.





	1. Her Baby

Their relationship was multi-dimensional. On the surface, they were two strong-willed individuals who both wanted to save the world but who butted heads while doing so. They argued with each other as naturally as they ate or slept, but beyond the fighting was a trusting and relatively healthy relationship that slipped easily between a friendship and a romance. Deeper still was the most secret part of their relationship, the part that remained strictly between the two of them. 

He knew the exact moment that she spotted him at the crime scene. He watched as she took a deep breath, pulled back her shoulders, and stormed over to him, no doubt ready to knock some sense into him as usual. As she drew closer and got a better look at him, he saw her annoyance fade. He must look bad then. That was what he got when he forced himself to avoid his coping headspace for over a month. He had tried to avoid it further, but when he found himself suddenly struggling just to put on his shoes and unable to focus on anything for longer than a few seconds, he knew he had to give in. He had made a few calls and found out where Eudora was then called for a cab. Eudora not Patch because right now he needed the non-officer part of her.

His relief at the sight of her was almost enough to make him completely drop right then. Instead, he had shifted impatiently and waited the excruciating three minutes for her to notice his presence. He didn’t protest when she grabbed hold of his wrist and led him to her personal car. He did fake his own annoyance though to keep anyone else from seeing anything out of the ordinary, especially as he let himself be manhandled into the vehicle. 

“I went too long,” he admitted. 

“I thought so,” she replied softly. She fastened the seatbelt around him and made sure it was fitted exactly right. “Wait here. I’ll take you home as soon as I finish up.” She reached into the middle console and pulled out a small stuffed chick that she placed into his lap. 

He stayed where she put him, clutching at the stuffed animal that was carefully hidden out of sight of anyone outside the car and watching as Eudora moved around collecting what information she needed. He wanted to know what had happened, but there was no point in asking. She barely told him anything when he was big, and she never told him about cases when he was little. He didn’t know what excuse she had given the others for his presence in her car. Whatever it was, he trusted her to not tell them the real reason. 

When she returned to the car, she climbed into the driver’s seat and took a moment to place a comforting hand on his knee. “Where’s your car?” 

“At my place.”

“Did you walk here?”

“I took a taxi."

She nodded approvingly. “Good. That’s good, Baby.”

That was the signal then. He could finally let go. He dropped into his littlespace with little effort, and while Eudora drove toward her place, he dragged his finger across the foggy window leaving behind pictures. 

“What are you drawing, Baby?” 

“Anim-m-mals. L-like P-Patches.” He held up the stuffed animal to emphasize his point. He liked animals. He wanted a kitten. Maybe Eudora would get him a kitten. “C-c-can I have a k-kitty?” 

She smiled at him. "You're not worried that a kitten would eat Patches?" she gently teased. 

He giggled. "N-n-no. The-they b-be f-friends." 

“Friends, huh? Well, we'll talk more about it later," she promised. 

When they arrived at her place, she ushered him inside and into the second bedroom. While they didn’t live together full time, the second bedroom in her apartment had long been converted into a nursery for him, and that was where he tended to stay whenever he dropped, especially since Eudora flat out refused to allow him to go to his own place whenever he was in his littlespace. She had insisted that his place was far too dangerous of a place for babies to be, which was probably right given the number of weapons and fighters that inhabited the building. 

“I’m going to get you settled, and then I have to go back to work. Just for a short time. An hour at most,” she explained quickly as he started to whine. “Besides, it’s time for you to have a nap.” That was one of the things, she had been firm about when they had first discussed their arrangement. He had to adhere to a routine when he was in littlespace. Routines were important for toddlers, and since he was a toddler in his littlespace, that meant routines were important for him. “C’mon. Let’s get you ready.” She patted his bottom to get him to take a seat on the bed. 

Once he was seated, she confiscated his weapons, making sure she got every single one. Those would be going into the gun-safe that he did not know the code to. Then she stripped him of his clothes before redressing him for his nap. She made sure the adjustable bed rails were firmly in place, the curtains were closed, and the lights were turned out. Between the midday sunlight still peeking through the sheer curtains and the nightlight in the corner of the room, there was still plenty of light to see by but not enough to keep him awake. 

He was put on his stomach so that he would sleep deeper, a trick she had learned from her high school job working at a toddler daycare. That job had taught her many helpful tricks for maintaining a routine, such as the use of a select playlist of music to aid in putting and keeping the children asleep for the entirety of naptime. She used a remote to turn on the speaker that was attached to the ceiling and well out of both of their reaches without the help of a stepladder. A playlist of classical music began playing at a preset volume, and she slipped the remote in her pocket. Diego felt his eyes growing heavy after only a few notes, and when she started rubbing his back, he lost his fight against sleep completely. 

Certain that he was out and that she could get back before he woke, she returned to the station long enough to make arrangements to work from home for the rest of the day. She had the next two days off which was good. She had a feeling they were going to need that long. 

When she returned to her place, she checked in on the still sleeping Diego before catching up on some paperwork. She kept a careful watch on the clock as she did. It was just as bad to have him take too long of a nap as it was to let him skip one. When it had been exactly two hours, she ventured back into the nursery.

“Hey, Baby.” She pressed a kiss on his cheek. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him. He looked adorable, even with the drool. She leaned close to press another kiss on the tip of his nose. “Did you have a good nap?” 

He rubbed at his eyes. A small blush colored his cheeks. She noticed and chuckled, running her long fingers through his hair. “Is that a yes?”

He nodded. Ah, so he was avoiding speaking yet. She knew his stutter bothered him, and it always returned in full force whenever he was in his littlespace. Sometimes, like earlier in the car, he would be okay with it. Other times, he would cry out of frustration. “It’s okay. You can speak when you’re ready,” she assured.

She tugged down his blanket with practiced movements. “Did you pee pee?” she asked, and if the blushing had been bad before, it was nothing compared to how red his face got at that question. He still let her press a hand to the crotch of his diaper. “Don’t be embarrassed. It’s perfectly natural.” 

He had only started wearing the diapers recently. She had been the one to suggest them, hoping that somehow it would help him to better accept his own needs, and he had taken to them well. The drops had been smoother since then, but she could tell he was still a little embarrassed over needing them.

Eudora pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Let go, baby. You’re safe with me,” she assured. He stretched back out on top of the blanket. Eudora hummed as she moved around the room, collecting the supplies she would need before making her way back over to the bed. She made quick work of the wet diaper. He squirmed slightly at the feeling of the cold wipes, but he drew his legs up when she slid the new diaper under him. Once she had finished, she helped him to tug on a pair of sweatpants. 

“How about a snack?” She offered him her hand, and he let her lead him to the kitchen. He sat at the table with his sippy cup and watched as she cut up his favorite fruits. She could see the way his eyes lingered on the knife in his hand, but he wasn’t allowed to help. “Knives are for grownups only,” she reminded him. He let out a little grunt of frustration but thankfully didn't pitch a tantrum. When she placed the blueberries, kiwis, and mango in front of him, he bounced up and down in excitement before digging in. 

She picked at her own plate and thought back to when they had first met. She had never expected to build this kind of relationship with him. He had been the one who was too rough with his words, who didn't hold back his opinions and who didn't coddle people. She had been the same. They had immediately developed a weird sort of mutual respect and competitiveness with each other. It had taken her little time though to see through his act. He was a secret softie. It had taken longer though to find out that the reason he was soft to others was because of how much he craved affection from others. 

It had been twelve years since they had met. It had been eleven years since they had reluctantly admitted that they were friends. Nine years since they admitted it was "complicated". Five years since she had noticed something, he had admitted to that something, and she had become his caregiver. Five years.

He popped a slice of mango in his mouth. "Y-yum."

She wiped at the juice trailing down his chin. Five years, and she hadn't once grown bored of it. She wanted more actually. Five years and he still had his own place. What were they waiting for?

He leaned over and planted a sticky kiss on her cheek. "T-thank you." 

"You're welcome, Sweetling." She would ask him when he was big. As soon as they had time to talk. 

"After our snack, do you want to play with the playdough or -”

“Blocks.” He said and grinned when no stutter came out. 

“Blocks it is.” 

When snack was finished, they moved back to the playroom and got out the blocks. They spent a few minutes building towers and knocking them back down until Diego’s attention span ran out. 

“C-color?” he asked turning wide eyes up at her. 

“Okay, but we have to pick up the blocks first.” 

He helped her to put the blocks back in their container, and then she got out the paper and a box of the jumbo-sized crayons. She doodled on a piece of paper of her own but mostly watched Diego. He drew him and her first. In his littlespace, he fumbled with the crayons. His lines were not quite as straight. His proportions were a bit off. Still, she could tell who was whom. Then he picked up another paper and drew more people.

“Who’s that?” She asked pointing at a larger figure sitting on what looked like a spaceship.

“B-b-bubby,” he mumbled. Then he pointed at another figure. A woman standing on a wide red path. “S-s-sissy.” He continued with the others, giving them the same names. One man was dressed in clothing that had every color of crayon involved in its design. Diego had drawn him with his arms spread wide in a way that made him look like he was gesturing wildly. Near him, Diego drew a woman on top of the stage playing what was probably a violin. Another figure looked like a boy in a school uniform. Another boy stood near him, dressed in black. He looked sad. Diego’s voice hitched further when he pointed them out. The largest figure was a smiling woman in a pretty dress. “M-m-mom.”

Right. Eudora had heard a lot about Diego's mom. She knew he was devastated that he seldom got to see her. He had rarely mentioned his siblings though, and Eudora had refused to read the book, feeling that it was a huge invasion of privacy. She had been seen Diego right after he had read it himself and knew exactly how hurt he had been with whatever was in its pages. 

“It’s so nice that you drew your family,” she cooed. 

“I m-miss th-th-th-” Diego’s hand clenched around the crayon in frustration. 

“It’s okay.” She rubbed his back. “Take your time. Remember, breathe in and breathe out.”

Breathing reminders seemed to help too. He had scared her a number of times by holding his breath for longer than she had thought possible. 

Diego took a long breath then slowly released it before speaking again. “M-miss th-them.” There were tears building up in his eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. She quickly scooted over to him and with some effort managed to tug him into her lap. He twisted around until the two of them were locked together. His legs went around her waist. His arms encircled her neck. She clutched back even tighter. “A-a-lone.” 

Those words nearly broke her. “Oh, Baby, you’ll see them again one day,” she told him. Guilt twisted in her stomach at the lie. From what she knew of the family, the only chance they would be getting together was if the world was about to end, and what were the chances of that. “But even if you don’t, you’re never alone. You’ll always have me.” She was going to make sure of it. That next weekend, she would ask him to move in with her. 

“P-p-promise?”

“Promise.”

Two days later, a rich billionaire died, and their world changed forever.


	2. Big Brother Klaus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus finds Diego in his littlespace.
> 
> No incest. Strictly platonic.

The world was safe because of them. Okay, so they had also been largely responsible for why it was ever in danger in the first place, but they had still managed to save things. Actually, Klaus had been the one to save them all, much to everyone’s surprise (especially his own).

Since then, the siblings had been focused on recovering. The first few days had been painful. All of them had been raw nerve endings. Physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, they had all tread carefully around each other waiting for someone to make the first move toward reconciliation. It had been Allison who launched things into action.

First, they had arranged to have their home rebuilt. Rather than a block of buildings all attached randomly, they had worked together to design a new home, one that actually felt like a home instead of a training facility. That was also how they discovered that home renovations were not for the weak, and it was also how they nearly started a second apocalypse. However, they had eventually been successful. (They had also ended up with a standing appointment with a family therapist twice a month. Group therapy was just as fun as you can imagine it. But it helped, so they stuck with it.) 

The new house had been rebuilt within only a few weeks, and they were all working together to become a family again. They had all even moved into the new house and spent more time there than at their personal residences. Well, they had all moved back in except for one, and Klaus was determined to fix that.

Klaus wasn’t sure what was holding Diego back. He wouldn’t have thought he would be the one that they would have to worry over. Sure, Diego showed up at the house for most meals. He attended their agreed upon group training sessions and always met them at their therapist’s office when those days rolled around. There was just something off about him. He kept himself at a distance, and while the others had thought it better to give their brother more space and time to adjust, Klaus had decided that that was a stupid idea. Actually, he had just gotten impatient and curious and worried about one of his favorite brothers and decided to act on those feelings since he had already taken the bus into town and found himself only a short distance from his Diego's place.

He started to go through the gym, but then he remembered there was a private entrance into the space which would allow him to avoid any others who might warn his brother of his arrival. He slipped around the building and barged into Diego’s place with all his usual dramatics. “Brother, dear!” he called out. “I was hoping that you could-,” he stopped short. Diego was curled up in a ball on his bed and was rocking back and forth. He had a small stuffed chick clutched against his chest, and pitiful sobs wracked his frame. 

“Shit, man,” Klaus murmured, already opening his arms in preparation of holding his brother. Diego’s gaze darted up. His eyes went wide, and his mouth opened then shut like a fish before he finally spoke. 

“G-G-G-go ‘way!” As soon as he shouted it, his hand went to his mouth. His thumb worried at his lips. 

Klaus inhaled sharply. He had had his suspicions. You didn’t frequent the kind of establishments he did without learning one or two things about headspaces in the process, and Diego had always had a certain way about him that made Klaus suspect he was a little more vulnerable than he allowed others to see. Despite that, seeing it for himself was still surprising. Luckily, Klaus was good with surprises, and thanks to some old friends he’d met along the way, he knew how to handle such a situation. He softened his voice, kept a genuine smile on his face, and approached as gently as possible. 

“Hey, baby bro,” he began. “Every thing’s okay. You’re safe,” he promised as he carefully sat on the bed.“Who’s this?” He nodded at the stuffed animal. 

Diego slowly uncurled one of his arms and turned the chick around for Klaus to better see it. “P-P-Patches.” The chick was actually wearing a patchwork scarf, but Klaus had a strong feeling that was not where the name had come from. 

“Nice to meet you, Patches.” 

The corners of Diego’s mouth turned upwards, just a small amount. 

“How old is Patches?”

Diego held up a hand. 

“Five?”

Diego nodded eagerly.

“And how old are you?”

Diego hesitated, but then he moved his hand switching between holding up one finger and two. 

“I see!” Toddler then. Somewhere between one and two. How appropriate. “Such a big boy!” he cooed. He was relieved to see the tears had officially stopped. 

“Are you thirsty?” he asked. He didn’t offer food. He didn’t know what his brother might have in his kitchen, especially since he tended to eat mainly at the family house, and Klaus would not take him out in public in his littlespace until they had had a chance to discuss things as adults first.

Diego bit at his lips and nodded. “D-drink p-please.” Klaus took that as a good sign that the words came out slightly clearer than earlier. After convincing Diego to sit at the table, Klaus double-checked that all of Diego’s weapons were safely out of his reach. He still kept half an eye on him as he looked through their beverage options. After a little searching, he found a clean water bottle on the counter. It was one of those made for the gym. Spill proof and all that jazz. Klaus filled it with what was left of the milk in the fridge. The gallon was just going to expire in two days anyway, and if Klaus got his way, Diego would not be home to drink it. Since the water bottle was the closest thing he could find to a sippy cup, Klaus wondered if Diego has not indulged this side of himself before. Exactly how experienced was Diego with his littlespace?

Klaus itched to ask, but he knew better than to do so until his brother came back up from his drop. He wanted permission before he found out more about such a personal side of his brother. Instead, they talked about what animals they liked, their favorite colors, and what flavor of ice cream was the best. Patches eventually got placed onto the table. A small frown formed on Diego’s face, and then there was a bit of panic that Klaus would have missed had he not been staring so closely. Ah, the drop was over then. 

“Tell no one about this,” Diego growled, shoving the drink aside and pushing his chair out to stand. 

“Uh-uh. No, sir.” Klaus grabbed onto Diego’s arm. “Sit down.” 

Diego plopped down immediately. He looked as surprised by his actions as Klaus was.

Klaus recovered first. “We need to talk about this.”

“N-No, w-w-we don’t.” Diego’s hands clenched into fists at the return of his stutter. 

“If you call your current caregiver and have them come over, then I’ll leave it alone, but until I know you have someone who can look after you when you drop, you’re going to be stuck with me.” 

Diego fidgeted in his chair, pointedly not meeting Klaus’s eyes. Klaus tried to wait. He tried to remain patient and outlast his brother in this conversational standoff. The adults were supposed to be the ones who held out longer, but man, it was difficult. It became even more difficult when Klaus realized his brother was entirely out of his littlespace and therefore more likely to continue not talking. 

“Ugh!” Klaus threw up his hands. “Okay, okay maybe I’m rushing things,” he mumbled to himself. Maybe his brother didn’t even know about caregivers. Klaus could help with that. “Do you understand what just happened to you? Has it happened before?”

Diego huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I know what littlespace is, and yes, it’s happened before.”

“So you’re-you’re not new to it?” Klaus confirmed. 

“Five years,” Diego admitted. He ran a hand over a knife mark in the table. That was better than actually reaching for a weapon at least.

Wow. Okay. Klaus had not been expecting that. Maybe Patches really was five then. “I take it you hadn’t planned to drop this time?” That definitely had him squirming in his seat. “After all, if you had planned it, I think you would have prepared a bit better.”

Again the question went unanswered. 

“Have you been having unexpected drops?” 

Diego let out a long exhale before nodding. 

“Look, it’s not surprising,” Klaus assured. “I mean, with all the shit we’ve been going through, we all need our coping methods right now. Yours just needs a little extra help, so let me call your caregiver, or if you want, I’ll ride with you over to their place and then take the bus back home. You need to stay with someone who can take care of you.”

Diego’s eyes started to water again, but unlike earlier, he didn’t let the tears fall. Instead, he angrily brushed them away. Klaus reached over and took hold of one hand. He rubbed his thumb over scarred knuckles.

“Diego?”

“S-she’s dead. She was-you saw- she’s dead.”

Klaus struggled to remember. “The detective?” The one from the motel. The one who saved him before Vietnam. That had been so long ago for him. Nearly a year now, but for Diego it would have been what…a month? Maybe a little more?

“Eu-Eudora,” Diego confirmed. 

Shit. Couldn’t anything ever go nicely for at least one of them? The situation only worsened as Klaus realized that not only had Diego lost Eudora, but he had also lost Mom. Two caregiver figures (though hopefully in two very different capacities) were gone in the span of one week, and he hadn’t even had time to mourn them with everything that had happened after. Klaus wouldn’t be surprised if he had dropped several times since the almost apocalypse. Oh hell. He probably had. Klaus found himself panicking as he imagined all the things that could have happened to his brother during those times. 

Diego’s eyes glazed over for just a moment, jerking Klaus from his thoughts, and he could tell from his brother’s body language that he was close to dropping again. There was just not enough time to discuss everything right then. He would have to skip to the time crucial parts. 

“Right. Well, it looks like we’re going back to the house.”

He stood and picked up the closest duffel bag, intending to fill it up with whatever things Diego would need right away. Before he can pick up a single item, Diego shot out of his own chair. 

“No.”

Klaus spun around. “You’re about to drop again,” he told him. “I want to get you someplace safe before then, and I doubt you want to be in public when it happens.”

“I can handle-”

“Diego, this is not a safe place! You could get seriously hurt if you’re left alone here while you’re in that state.” Diego’s eyes dropped to the floor, and Klaus stepped forward to place his hands on his shoulders. “We can discuss the details when you’re feeling bigger, but for now, please just let me take care of you.”

Diego mumbled something so low that Klaus couldn’t even begin to guess what he’s saying. “What was that?”

He sighed. “I don’t want the others to know.” 

“I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be between us. Do I have your permission to take care of you?”

Diego relaxed, not much but just slightly. “Yeah. Okay. For now.” 

“Okay, okay. We’ll do the whole formal list later today. Now, do you have any supplies or-”

He pointed to a corner of the room where Klaus could just barely make out a bag tucked away under a dresser. It was filled, nearly bursting at the seams. 

“You have a lot of stuff.” 

“I took the things from her apartment after… I didn’t want anyone to find out and think she was…” 

Yeah. He understood. Well, not really. He’d never been the type to be embarrassed by what he liked, but he knew that some people didn’t like for others to know.

“Do you think you’ll need anything else?”

“Just my usual stuff.”

Klaus waited as Diego packed up his weapons and a few changes of clothes. He kept his eyes glued on Diego as he drove them home, intending to get him to pull over at the slightest sign of a drop, but they made the entire trip without any problems. 

They even got into the house and up to the Diego’s seldom used new bedroom without anyone noticing their presence. “Sit on the bed. I’ll unpack.”

‘I’m not little right now. I can-”

“Let me. Please.” He pressed Patches into his brother’s hands and was pleasantly surprised when Diego sat down on the bed with only a small roll of his eyes. 

“Did you eat yet today? You weren’t here for breakfast.” Klaus quickly unpacked the one bag, knowing that Diego would better straighten things later. 

Diego nodded. “I went out for breakfast.”

First bag was done. Now, there was the big bag. “Can I see what’s in here?”

Diego tugged on Patches’ scarf but nodded. Klaus unzipped the bag. There were the usual things: a blankie, a pacifier, a few sippy cups, a variety of toys, some more juvenile looking clothing. What he found at the bottom of the bag was the most surprising, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. Diapers were common for littles. He just had to make sure he knew whether they were a necessity or just an addition. 

Klaus had a feeling the bag would be stored either in the closet or another hiding spot in the room. Out of sight except for when needed. Right now, it was needed. 

“Can you tell me what Eudora would do when you were in littlespace?”

Diego made a grabby hand at the bag, and for a moment, Klaus thought he had dropped again. That wasn’t the case though. Diego took the bag and rummaged inside, going past all the things that Klaus had seen during his cursory glance and unzipping an inner pocket. He pulled out a laminated 3x5 paper and handed it over. 

“She liked organization,” he mumbled. 

Klaus looked the paper over. One one side it listed a schedule. It didn’t take a lot to realize it was a schedule for when he was in littlespace. On the other side, were their agreed upon terms. The date in the corner indicated that this was something they updated regularly. That was beyond helpful. 

“Do you want to go by this?”

“Y-yeah.” 

“And the diapers?” 

Diego flushed bright red. “N-n-not yet.”

Klaus nodded. “When you’re ready, just know that it’s not an issue.” He waved around this paper. “It says that you have accidental drops when you try to avoid your headspace, but that you’re the one that has to ask to schedule things. I think that since neither of us works-”

“I w-work!”

Klaus raised one eyebrow. “Since neither of us has a job that requires we come in, and yes, I already know that you skip out on that gym job of yours plenty-, we should just go ahead and set aside regular days and times for you. At least until things calm down around here. It might help to keep you from dropping at inconvenient times.”

“W-w-when?”

“How about Wednesdays? Vanya will have her orchestra practice, Luther has his private therapy sessions, and Allison’s got her speech therapy. We would only have Five to worry about, and usually, he’s busy planning for his evening training sessions with Vanya.” 

Diego nodded his agreement. 

“And if you need to drop more often, you can just tell me, and I’ll handle things.”

The tension bled out of Diego’s frame, and he slumped back against the wall. 

Klaus checked the schedule again. If Diego dropped right then, they would have nearly two hours before he would need to eat lunch. Two hours might be enough time to get him in a stable enough state that they could eat with the others without any risk of Diego dropping. He mentioned it to his brother and was pleased by how quickly he accepted the idea. Klaus clapped in delight. 

“Wait here!” 

He darted to his own room then returned to Diego’s with his arms loaded down with paints and one of those rolls of neverending paper or whatever they were. He’d gone impulse shopping the other day and hadn’t been able to resist the craft section. 

“So, Baby Bro,” he grinned down at his brother. “How about some fingerpainting?” 

Diego’s face lit up. Klaus dressed himself and Diego in some of his old sweatpants and tie-dye shirts, popped the pacifier into Diego’s mouth, and then pried open the jars of non-toxic kids’ fingerpaints. Two hours later, when Diego emerged from his littlespace just in time to wash up for lunch, the paper, the floor, and both brothers were covered in a rainbow of paint. 

“So-um,” Klaus laughed sheepishly at the glare big Diego was sending him. “Maybe next time we should put down one of those play-mats first.” 

The unrestrained chuckle that burst out of Diego at that was totally worth having to scrub the floor that afternoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter:  
> If Klaus knows something then chances are that Ben knows too.


	3. Big Brother Ben

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Klaus knows, Ben knows.

It had been three weeks since Diego had moved into the house full time and Klaus had taken over as his caregiver. Things were going smoothly. There had definitely been fewer accidental drops, and the few that had occurred, Klaus had handled quickly. No one even batted an eye when he would randomly grab at Diego and drag off him shouting about some new idea or anything else. He did the same to the rest of them often enough. Allison had once been dragged off when Klaus had wanted to try out every online nail tutorial he had ever bookmarked in his life. They had resurfaced nearly three hours later with each of their nails done in a completely different style. So for him to drag off Diego, well, as long as knives weren’t suddenly falling from the ceiling, no one bothered to question it. There was one sibling they couldn’t fool though.

“Could you just ask him?”

Klaus sighed and glanced over the top of the magazine he was reading to stare at his ghostly brother. “He’s just now getting used to me,” he replied, not too worried about Diego overhearing since he was currently taking a nap with his headphones on. After all, it was a Wednesday, which meant they were trying to adhere to the schedule for as much of the day as they could possibly manage. 

Ben poked at Klaus, delighting in how easy it was to have physical contact with at least one person now. “You know he knows that I know, so what would it hurt to just ask?” 

Klaus flipped the page in the magazine and hummed in thought. Regardless of what everyone thought, he didn’t actually follow his brother around all the time, just most of the time. Still, Ben had discovered Diego’s secret only a few hours after Klaus had when he had popped in on the two of them fingerpainting together. He hadn’t interrupted them. He wasn’t even sure that Klaus had noticed his presence there until he asked him about the situation later. He had been perfectly content to sit and watch two of his siblings be worry-free for the first time in so long. 

Now, however, he wanted a turn at playing big brother. “Ask him for me or make me corporeal long enough to ask him myself.” 

Klaus sighed, long, loud, and heavy. He tossed the magazine over his shoulder. “Finnnneee! I will ask him, but only when he’s big again, so don’t go getting your hopes up that you’ll get to play with him today.” 

Ben bounced on his heels, satisfied with the arrangement. “I’ll be waiting.” 

Klaus checked the time. “Ten more minutes.” He ignored another ghost passing through the room and instead hopped up to get Diego’s snack from downstairs so that it would be ready as soon as he woke. 

“You know this is good for you too.” 

Klaus continued walking, knowing that Ben would follow. “What is?”

“Ever since you started looking after him, I haven’t seen you even try to take anything.”

“I had a drink the other day.”

“Yea a drink. One single drink. You didn’t even get tipsy, and you stopped as soon as you saw Diego.” 

Klaus reached into the pantry and found a box of animal crackers. He poured some out on a plate and then cut up an apple to join them. He reached for the pitcher of grape juice. 

“No, milk will go better with the animal crackers,” Ben insisted. 

Klaus rolled his eyes but took the milk instead. He poured it into a glass. He would switch it to a sippy cup once he was back in the privacy of Diego’s room. 

“Are you going to hover all day?” 

“He’s my brother too.”

“I know, and as soon as we get his permission, I’ll make sure you get more time with him.” 

Ben shifted around. “Fine. Still going to hover today,” he muttered, and he did hover but not entirely for the reasons Klaus was aware of. He watched as Klaus woke their brother and Diego scrubbed cutely at his face and messy hair. When one of the usual ghosts started to move toward Klaus, Ben put himself in the way. “Not now,” he growled lowly, not wanting anything to distract Klaus from his current tasks. He couldn’t always keep the other spirits from his brother, especially in certain locations or when there were so many of them, but he could handle one or two, especially with the recent power upgrades Klaus had been experiencing. 

Snack time, play time, and then the schedule was cut short when they heard the others gathering in the main room, and Klaus had to try to guide Diego back out of his littlespace. 

Once Diego was up and fully coherent, Ben began his campaign again. “Now, Klaus.”

“Alright, alright.” 

Diego turned toward him. “What’s happening?”

“Ben wants to know if he can help.”

“What?”

Klaus concentrated until he brought Ben into his corporeal state. “You explain it.”

“Diego, I just want to help too.”

“You don’t think it’s weird?”

Ben’s eyebrows went up. “I spend most of my time around this one,” he gestured toward Klaus. “Trust me, you are not the weird brother in this family. Actually, your coping method is downright tame compared to some of the things I’ve witnessed Klaus doing.”

Diego looked between Klaus and Ben. “If you’re sure you don’t mind-”

“I don’t.”

“Then I guess we could try it next time.”

Ben launched forward, embracing his brother while he had a chance. Diego clutched back at him. Ever since Klaus’s abilities had upgraded to include making their brother corporeal, all the siblings competed for as much time as possible with their once lost brother. Ben loved it. 

“Since you’re already corporeal, why don’t you join us for dinner,” Diego said. Once again, he looked at Klaus as he made the suggestion. That was becoming a bit of a habit too. In return though, Ben had noticed that Klaus was more aware of Diego’s needs, even when he wasn’t in littlespace. 

“Yeah, Ben, join us for family dinner. I can sustain your presence that long at least,” Klaus chimed in.

“How could I refuse?”

The next week when Diego dropped, Ben hovered around in anticipation of his turn. He and Klaus had practiced all week until Ben’s corporeal state could be maintained for nearly two whole hours. He picked his time wisely, waiting until after Klaus had fed Diego his breakfast and gotten him dressed in his baby outfit for the day. Then he jumped in for the fun and games part of the day while Klaus went off as far as he could manage and still maintain Ben’s form in order to give them some privacy. 

Ben offered Diego dozens of options: blocks, playdough, even some messier craft options. Diego turned them all down. All he wanted was to cuddle with the brother he so seldom got to see. Ben had been more than happy to oblige, and the two of them sat curled together, reading storybooks until Klaus slipped back in the room to let Ben know his time was up.

“C-come a-again?” Diego asked when Ben reluctantly place him back on the bed to say his goodbyes. 

“Yes,” Ben promised. “As often as I can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up:
> 
> Normally Five would be amused at his siblings' attempts to keep secrets from him, but at that moment all he wants is to get Diego to stop crying.


	4. Big Brother Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five has a turn.

Diego had to admit that since he had started scheduling a regular time for his littlespace, the unexpected drops were not happening nearly as often as before. However, they still happened on occasion, and when they did there was no way for him to stop them. 

“K-Klaus,” Diego called out. He hoped that no one heard the panic in his voice as he wandered around the still too large house to find his brother. He checked the usual spots, but Klaus was in none of them. Footsteps sounded in the nearby hall, and he ducked into the closest room which happened to be the library. 

He was going to drop any second. He could feel it. “B-Ben, if you’re there, I n-need K-klaus.” He hoped Ben was near him. Whenever Klaus had to go out for very long and Diego didn’t go with him, Ben would split his time evenly between the two brothers, acting as a haunted baby monitor of sorts. At first, Diego had been insulted by the idea. He didn’t need a constant babysitter. He wasn’t actually a toddler. He had been outnumbered though. Both Klaus and Ben (during one of his corporeal visits during big time) had insisted that it was only until he had stopped accidentally dropping, and Diego had found himself giving in. 

He tried to focus. He needed to get to a safe place. He needed a place where none of the rest of his siblings would find him, but he had had his knives in his room cleaning them, and while Klaus had cleaned all the drugs out of his own room, there were still a few items in there that Diego was sure would traumatize him in any headspace. 

“Klaus!” he called out again. 

A flash appeared in the room.“He’s at his meeting. Can’t you simpletons keep anything-” Five’s insult stopped short as he looked at Diego’s face. Tears. There were tears. “Oh shit,” Five whispered.

He stepped closer to his little brother (they were all his little siblings now even if his physical appearance made the rest of them forget). He placed what he thought was a comforting hand on his shoulder and tried to remember what could make someone just barely out of their twenties cry in such a way. The problem was thirty had been a long time ago for him, and even then his only concerns had been staying alive. 

“Diego, breathe,” he ordered in a calm tone. “Follow my breaths.” He waited until the little gasps turned to normal breathing patterns. His brother didn’t need to breathe, but the gasping certainly had not been helping to calm anyone. “Now, Klaus is out, but I am right here. Okay? You just need to tell me how to help.” Diego’s eyes started to well up again, and Five shushed him. “Whatever it is, I can help. Can’t be worse than another apocalypse. Right?” 

Diego sniffled, but he appeared calmer. His face had gone a beet red that made Five think that whatever the problem was, once he had solved it and Diego was not sobbing, he would be able to tease his brother about it. Until then, he had to be mature. Not like anyone else in the house was capable of it. 

“There we go. Now, can you tell me what’s happening.”

“C-closet. B-b-ba-bag”

“It’s okay. Stay right here. I’ll find it and come back.” He promised. He popped out of the room and into the closet. A part of him expected to find either something gruesome or something rather dull like a spider. Diego might be the vigilante of the family, but he was probably the softest of them all as well. Even Ben, who had been just as quick with his cutting remarks, had just sighed over gory movies when they were little, but Diego had teared up over those sad animal commercials. 

Instead of a decapitated head or a dead animal of any sort, Five found a relatively well-organized closet. Everything was in place, unusually so for one of his brothers. He looked around and found what looked like a gym bag. Diego’s real gym bag was in its usual place in their new laundry room. 

Five took hold of the bag and braced himself for whatever his brothers were hiding inside. Normally, he would be amused at his siblings’ attempts to keep secrets from him, but at that moment all he wanted was to get Diego to stop crying. He slowly unzipped the bag and took in its contents. Oh. Ohhhhh… Okay, that was-that made sense actually. But if Diego had wanted Klaus, then that meant Klaus was-nope. Hell no. Klaus was not going to be solely in charge of a baby, especially when that baby happened to be Five’s own brother. 

He found two pages. One was laminated, typed neatly in a way that made it clear Klaus had not made it. Brief but informative, it covered all the basics which Five appreciated. The other paper though had been written in Klaus’s looping style, and Five admitted to himself that his earlier assessment of his brother had perhaps been a bit unfair. 

On it were amendments and additions to the original paper, ways to avoid their other siblings, signs of an impending drop, food preferences, clothing preferences, some tips on dealing with babyDiego when he was in a foul mood and didn’t want to follow the schedule, and last of all, a reminder to put down a playmat when doing crafts. It was written in a way that made Five suspect it had been intended for an occasion like this, where Diego had dropped, Klaus wasn’t available, but another sibling had found out. 

Good. He could handle this. Five grabbed the pacifier and jumped back into the library. “Here.” He popped the pacifier into Diego’s mouth. Diego, eyes remarkably wide, blinked up at him. 

“You should have just told me you were a baby to begin with,” Five murmured while taking hold of his brother’s hand. 

 

Diego popped out the pacifier. “N-not. B-baby.”

Five rolled his eyes and put the pacifier back in, noting how Diego immediately began sucking on it. “Yes, yes, you’re technically a toddler,” he jumped them into his personal lab. It was safe enough. Any dangerous items were always locked away when Five wasn’t using them just in case any of his siblings happened to wander into the room. “Klaus isn’t here, but he will be back soon.” He added the last part before Diego could begin to panic. “While we wait for him, how about you help me do some science?” 

Diego tilted his head curiously, and Five pulled out a box of cornstarch. 

“Have you ever heard of ooblek?” 

Diego shook his head. 

“Well, today’s the day you learn.” 

Klaus came running into the lab a little over half an hour later to find his brothers seated at a table with what looked like slime dripping out from their hands. Five was going on about chemical properties, and Diego was just giggling around his pacifier while he grabbed for more of the gunk. 

“Hello, Klaus,” Five greeted. 

“B-b-bubby!” Diego jumped out of his chair and raced over to Klaus. Klaus grunted as his brother slammed into him full force, but he managed to catch him without both of them going sprawling onto the floor. 

“Hey, Baby, did you miss me?”

Diego nodded. “Y-you w-w-w-”

“Slowly.”

“G-gone.”

“Yes, I had to go to a meeting, but it looks like you had a lot of fun with Five.” He shot a glance over at said brother, who acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary. 

“I had the free time.”

Klaus let himself be tugged over to the table to better see. Diego glanced around him. “B-Ben?”

Klaus concentrated for a moment, and Ben appeared as well. Diego jumped up in delight at having three of his siblings with him. 

“T-touch.”

Klaus and Ben played along. The four brothers made more of the stuff and then got into an ooblek fight that resulted in Ben carting Diego off to the closest bathroom to try to scrub the stuff off his face. 

“Thank you for watching him,” Klaus murmured when he and Five were alone.

Five continued cleaning up the ooblek. “Well, it was the only way to get him to stop crying.”

Klaus winced. “You won’t tease him about this later, right?”

“You mean once he’s back to his big headspace?”

Klaus bit his lip and nodded. “Yeah, then.”

“I won’t. You know that.”

“Just needed to hear it.”

“The others wouldn’t tease him either. We might not always be the kindest to each other, but we don’t mock the coping methods.”

Vanya’s therapy sessions, Luther’s dancing and poetry, Five’s Delores, Klaus’s bubble baths, Alison’s hiding in the attic, Ben’s reading for escapism, and now Diego’s littlespace. It was true that all of them mocked each other mercilessly for most things, but certain things were always off limits. 

“He’ll tell them when he’s ready.”

“And what if he doesn’t get a chance? What if what happens today happens again but with one of the others, and what if they don’t deal as well?”

Klaus tapped out a nervous beat on the table. “Then we deal with it then. I can’t-won’t force him to tell them before he’s ready.”

“And he shouldn’t have to tell them before he’s ready, but I think we need a plan for how to avoid it happening.”

“We?”

“Yes, we. Between, you, me, and Ben, I think we can keep him safe.”

Ben returned then with a much cleaner Diego. “He wanted to see you two before I take him to his room for lunch and then a nap.”

“Actually, we’ll join you for lunch.” Five smiled at Diego and offered his hand. “You two go cook, and we’ll see you there.” 

He and Diego jumped out of the lab and left Ben and Klaus staring at each other. 

“He does not get to be the favorite babysitter,” Ben started.

“Oh hells no, I’m the favorite!” 

Both brothers glared at each other before Five popped back in. “Diego wants spaghetti today, so you best hurry up if you plan on getting him fed, washed up, and into bed by nap time.”

He popped back out with a laugh. 

Ben turned to the door. “I’ll get the noodles going.”

Klaus sighed. “I’ll get the sauce.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Up Next: Allison


	5. Big Sister Allison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allison and Diego have breakfast.

The accidental drops had been occurring far less frequently. Five credited himself because, of course, now Five was involved. That had been more than a little embarrassing when Diego had emerged from his littlespace to find his oldest/youngest brother waiting nearby. Five had had questions but not the type of questions Diego had been expecting. His questions were almost clinical in detail. It was only after he had rather thoroughly interrogated him that he had flushed slightly and asked if it was okay for him to be involved while Diego was in his littlespace. Diego had agreed and found himself further stunned at how pleased Five seemed to be with it all. 

However, he was now on a new schedule. Five had reviewed the old one and determined that while it was nearly flawless having a drop schedule only once a week was not suitable for Diego’s needs. How he had figured out what Diego had needed was beyond the rest of them. Actually, Five had tried to explain it to them, but he, Klaus, and Ben had all zoned out after the first few minutes and ended up agreeing to Five’s plan.

Wednesdays were still littlespace days with Klaus taking care of him for most of the days and Ben getting in his two hours between breakfast and lunch, but now he also had Saturday mornings with Five. That was when Klaus tended to still be fast asleep (and thus Ben was unavailable) and when the others were out running errands or in Luther’s case, finally exploring the world. Diego didn’t mind. 

Actually, he found that he felt more balanced than ever before, and with half of his siblings being aware of his littlespace and being (overly) supportive of it, some of the stress of keeping it hidden had disappeared. Everything was going great, and then it wasn’t. 

He had just been making pancakes. That was all. He had poured the batter into neat circles on the griddle. Well, they were neat for the average person anyway. It was when he turned to the fridge to find some toppings that he began to feel overwhelmed. Images of smiley-faced pancakes flashed through his mind. Then came the image of Grace’s face with its matching smile as she placed the plate in front of him. It made him freeze in his tracks. Mom. Mommy. Mommy. He wanted his mommy. 

He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, willing himself out of panic mode, out of a potential drop, but suddenly quick steps sounded behind him.

“Diego!” Allison’s voice was as loud as she could get it those days. She would be hoarse later. There was the sound of a spatula moving, and he slowly turned to find Allison scraping horribly burnt pancakes off the griddle before unplugging it. “I know you didn’t agree with every aspect of the new house designs, but burning it down is not going to mean we go entirely with your designs on the next rebuild.” 

Her tone was lighter than it would have been in the past, not because she was still recovering but because she was making a conscious effort to be friendlier. The two of them had always been known for having sharp tongues, and while it was fun to one up each other, they could both go from teasing to cutting far too easily. These days, they made a pointed effort to avoid crossing the lines. 

“I can’t even tell if you were trying to make pancakes or omelets,” Alison continued. Despite her words, her eyes sparkled with amusement while her lips rested in a soft smile. It was a mom’s smile.

He squirmed under her words, and that was it. Too late. Again. “S-sorry, Sissy.” 

The double-take she did would be funny later. Right then, he was too worried about his own slip-up and the way that her eyes were narrowing in consideration. “What was that?”

He licked his lips. “Sorry.” He forced the word out. He tapped the toe of one shoe nervously against the floor. 

Allison huffed out a laugh of disbelief. “You don’t have to be sorry,” she replied. “Accidents happen. Just be more careful.” And that tone was something new. It was one he had heard her use only a few times before and always with her daughter. It was a nice tone. A warm tone.

“Y-yeah, I w-w-will.” He darted back over to the counter. He studied the pile of burnt pancakes and tried to think of what he needed to do. 

“You can’t salvage those,” she said, automatically reaching past him to dump the charred remains before he could do something ridiculous like try to eat them. It wouldn’t even be surprising. All her siblings lacked a bit of common sense. As she did, she watched her brother quietly. He was definitely acting weird. Weirder than usual anyway. Was it another apocalypse? 

“I heard a rumor that I knew what the hell was going on,” Allison mumbled under her breath. It was an old habit of hers. A private joke shared only with herself. Something she had said a hundred times in the past whenever someone was acting weird around her or when she just didn’t get what was happening. Nothing had ever come from it. She had made sure it was worded in a way that it shouldn’t work on anyone. It was just something to make herself laugh. That was why when she got an actual answer, she didn’t know if it was her ability or if Diego was answering on his own free will. 

“I-I-I’m a li-little.” 

“You’re a what?” Apparently, it was not her ability because she was just more confused now.

“I c-can’t-.” He clenched his fists in frustration. The look on his face was so young that it made Allison’s breath catch ever so slightly. It had been so long since she had seen her brother look vulnerable, at least when it came to anything other than their mom. 

She stepped close enough to put her hands on his shoulders. “How about you explain things to me later,” she suggested gently. “For right now, let’s have some breakfast. Still want pancakes?”

He shook his head. “No,” he mouthed the word rather than attempting to say it. 

“How about some French toast? I learned a new recipe for it, and I think it’s sweet enough for even you to love.” He might claim he only ate healthy food, but Allison was well aware of her brother’s sweet tooth. He gave her a small nod, and she turned to gather the ingredients to make the dulce de leche french toast that she only rarely allowed herself to indulge in. When she didn’t hear anything else, she turned back around. “Take a seat and get comfortable. I can handle this.” He timidly sat down in the closest chair, and she resumed fixing their breakfast. 

Little. Little. Where had she heard that before. She glanced back over her shoulder at her brother again. He had one hand up near his mouth. His pointer finger was hooked over his nose while his thumb worried against his chin. From a different angle, it would look like he was sucking his thumb. Little. Little. 

Oh shit. Allison stared at the piece of soaked bread she had just dropped onto the floor. Her mind wandered back to her first few months in Hollywood. She had been “networking” with everyone she could find, and while part of it had been for business, there was also a part of her that had been curious about the world outside the academy. She had been wild those first years. She had tried nearly everything she was offered. She had gone just about everywhere she was invited. 

There had been a party once. A kink party. She hadn’t even known what that was before walking into the building. At eighteen, she had just wanted to seem mature. Most of the party had been overwhelming. Bondage, blood, a bunch of stuff that reminded her too much of training and nothing at all of what she had imagined sex to be. Not wanting to leave and have people think less of her, she had traveled through the different rooms until she found the tamest. Basically the only room that hadn’t given her flashbacks to her childhood. Ironically, it had been a nursery of sorts. Some adults in juvenile clothing had been spread about the floor. Some playing with toys. Others cuddling with more mature looking adults. One of the caregivers had noticed her nervousness and invited her to join. “I’m not really into-” she had made a little hand wave at the room. 

“That’s fine,” the woman had replied. “You can still join us if you’re not comfortable in the other rooms and not ready to leave. We have some comfy chairs in the corners for people who just need a break from everything or you can just take a seat anywhere. I promise this room is very clean. It has to be to have babies on its floor.” 

Allison had joined them in the room for awhile, carefully taking a seat on the floor not too close but not too far either. She had found herself playing blocks with one little while a caregiver explained some of the aspects of the headspace and that in some cases, the relationships had nothing to do with sex at all. 

It had been years since she had thought of that though. She had never even considered that one of her siblings might be involved in that world, especially Diego out of all of them. Actually, scratch that. The more she considered it, the more it made sense that it was him. 

Of all the times for them to not have mom around. Well, there was at least one mom in the house, and she had completed all her mandatory therapy sessions and almost fifty more voluntary ones if she counted the extra parenting classes she had signed herself up for. 

She got the french toast into the oven. Thankfully they had a chill blaster and an enhanced oven, or else she would still be an hour away from breakfast rather than only a few minutes. 

“What do you want to drink, Sweetling?” She watched Diego’s face carefully to see how he reacted to her own shift. 

His eyes widened ever so slightly, but he didn’t protest the sentiment. “Coffee.” Once again he mouthed the word rather than trying to say it. 

She stared him down. “I don’t think coffee is a good idea for someone so little. Do you?” 

He flushed. His thumb went from his chin to his mouth. “Tea?” 

“Royal milk tea?”

He nodded eagerly. And yeah, probably giving him that much sugar (between the tea and the french toast) was no better than giving him an actual coffee, but it was a day of indulgence. They were going to indulge. 

“Coming up then.” She went straight to the back of the kitchen where extra pots and pans were stored amongst other spare kitchen supplies. Reginald hadn’t been the type to throw away any of his possessions strangely enough. He had had Grace to store everything neatly, and it didn’t take Allison long to find what she was looking for.

She cleaned the dust off the bottle until it was spotless then poured the milk tea into it. Testing the temperature of the tea on her forearm was so natural that it took her a moment to realize what she had just done. 

“Here we are, Sweetling.” 

Diego took hold of the bottle with both hands. Allison plated their breakfast, cutting Diego’s into tiny bite-sized pieces. When she sat down she kept both plates in front of herself and with a practiced ease switched between feeing herself and her brother. 

Diego bounced in excitement at his food and eventually grew comfortable enough to chat a little. The conversation never veered too far from toddler speak, but Allison enjoyed it all the same. She liked not having to strain her own voice. One word remarks were often more than enough to satisfy his need for conversation right then. 

When Klaus entered the room, she startled ever so slightly. She licked her lips, preparing herself for the unfortunate task of having to rumor her sibling if it meant protecting the privacy of another. Diego didn’t try to hid though, and Klaus didn’t seem surprised. 

“Hey, Bubby!”

“Hey, Baby! Did Sissy make you breakfast?” He paused long enough to plant a kiss on the top of Diego’s head and a reassuring hand to Allison’s shoulder before grabbing himself a helping of the french toast. 

“I take it you knew.”

Klaus plopped down into a chair. His stretched his legs out over the others. “Me, Ben, and Five.”

Diego perked up at the sound of their names and looked around for them. Klaus glanced over his own shoulder. “Yeah, okay.” Ben materialized in moments and went straight for his own plate before taking a chair next to Diego. 

“I can’t believe you thought I would pass up this french toast.” 

“Do you even need food?”

“No, but it’s delicious.” 

“Where did you find that bottle anyway? He usually just uses a sippy cup.”

“It was in storage. You know Dad kept everything just in case it ended up being evidence of something.” Allison resumed feeding Diego. “Is there any particular reason why Vanya and Luther still don’t know? Or why I didn’t know until now?”

It was Ben who replied. “I don’t think he intended for any of us to know. Klaus just stumbled in on him and kind of took over. I found out because I popped in on them. Five found out when Diego dropped while Klaus and I were out, and now you.”

“But why not just tell the rest now? Wouldn’t it be easier?”

Diego fidgeted in his seat. 

Ben reached over and ran a hand down his arm. 

Klaus stabbed at the french toast. “He’s afraid Luther might tease him if he knows or think less of him, and he not quite ready to trust Vanya with any of his secrets considering…”

“Considering the last time she aired all of your secrets and weaknesses to the whole world,” Ben finished. 

Allison prepared herself to jump to her sister’s defense, but it was kind of true. “I’ll keep it secret,” she promised instead. She dabbed at Diego’s mouth with a napkin. “How does he-does he always drop acci-” The words wouldn’t come to her. She didn’t know how to ask for what she wanted. 

“Look if you want in, you have to do the same as us. Wait until he’s big again and ask his permission. You’re not cutting in on my two hours though.” Ben stabbed at his french toast. “Even if you do make amazingly delicious breakfasts,” he mumbled the last bit under his breath, but Allison still heard it.

“You wouldn’t mind?” 

It was weird because they were all his siblings, but at the same time, littleDiego felt like someone different, someone who right now was Klaus’s responsibility in the same way that Claire was hers and Patrick’s. 

Klaus chuckled. “I think Five can make necessary adjustments to give us all time with him, and it wouldn’t hurt to have one more person know for if another accidental drop happens.”

Diego handed over his empty bottle. He had finished his food too. “P-play n-now?” He bounced higher in his chair. 

Klaus checked the time while Ben snorted. “You really think it matters what time it is. He’s already off schedule, and our dear sister has pumped him full of sugar. The best we can hope for is that his sugar crash happens around his nap time, or he becomes big before then.”

Klaus smirked. “Or we could just let Allison have a try at babysitting for the day.” He met her eyes. “What do you say, Sis?” 

Allison wagged her finger at them. “Oh no, I have to get big Diego’s permission first.” 

Diego, tired of waiting on them, let out a long sigh. “P-play! All!”

Klaus, Ben, and Allison exchanged amused glances. “Well, you heard him. Let’s all go play!”

“B-bubby Five?” 

Klaus grasped onto Diego’s hand to take him upstairs. “Oh yeah, buddy, we can’t let Five miss out on this.” 

After a moment, Allison slid her own hand into Ben’s grasp and together they raced up the stairs behind their brothers laughing the entire way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got away from me and ended up being a bit more about Allison than Diego, but I might end up adding a few more chapters than I initially planned because of that.


	6. Big Sister Vanya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya finds out

As another box toppled over, spilling its contents onto Diego and inspiring a colorful string of curses in the process, he paused for a second to see if any of his currently overprotective siblings would come running to rescue him from the pile of stuffed animals. When a few seconds passed and no footsteps sounded outside his door, he let himself relax and go back to sorting through things. He really should have designed a bigger closet for himself when they were rebuilding their house. Then again, he hadn’t planned on moving back in in the first place and even if he had been planning to, he never would have thought he would need much in the way of storage space. 

He grunted as he bent over to scoop up the toys that had fallen out. There were so many. His collection had been steadily growing since his siblings had found out that he was a little. Usually one of them would see something while they were out, buy it, and then rush home to surprise him with him. Half the time, they couldn’t even wait to present him with his gift until he was in littlespace, and he had to bite back any sharp retorts and instead fake his amusement at whatever toddler toy he was given. 

He was delighted by his gifts when he did drop, and when not in his littlespace, he appreciated how accepting they had all been so far, but it was getting more and more difficult to hide his things in his room. Not to mention, that besides the gifts his siblings so proudly presented him with, there were just as many that suddenly appeared in his room. So far, no one had admitted to those yet, and when he had asked Ben about it, his brother had just shrugged like the rest of them even though Diego knew that Ben had to know who was responsible for them all. 

Diego settled the box back into its place and went back to searching for his coat. He had just placed his hand on it and was about to tug it from the hanger when a tremor raced through the house and sent an entire tower of boxes tumbling to the ground. 

“Shit,” Diego mumbled. Maybe he could cuddle up with one of his caregivers later and trick them into picking it all up again. Maybe Ben or Allison, whenever she got back from visiting Claire. They didn’t get bored halfway through like Klaus, and their organization systems were far less complex than Five’s. Then again, maybe he was having so much trouble because he was supposed to be in his littlespace soon. 

Wednesdays were still with Klaus and Ben, Saturday mornings were Five’s, and now he had Monday afternoons with Allison which just happened to be when Five and Vanya had rescheduled their training sessions for since her orchestra practices were lasting longer as performance season drew closer. The only problem was that that Monday, Allison was across the country on a trip, and while the others had volunteered to watch him during that time, Diego had refused the offers, not thinking the drop time was necessary that day. To bad that he seemed to be wrong about that as usual. 

“Stop! Stop it!” Vanya’s shout echoed through the house. Diego dodged more boxes and took off running to the main room. He paused only long enough to grab the closest harness. Armed with his weapons, he took in the scene, looking for any possible threats, but the room was empty save for two of his siblings. 

“What’s happening?” 

Five swore when he saw Diego at the top of the stairs. “Vanya, please remember to breathe. Focus on controlling it.” He teleported to his brother’s side. “Why don’t you go out? See a movie. Go for a jog. Pick up some takeout for dinner. I have a craving for some Thai food.” He reached out as if to teleport him to another location himself, and Diego quickly stepped away. 

That had been the biggest downside to his siblings finding out about his littlespace. Those of them who knew suddenly had a ridiculous urge to keep him away from basically anything they deemed too dangerous for a knife fight. Which okay, they usually also were stopping him because it was a situation too big for just two of them to handle alone and they didn’t want Diego out of the situation entirely but instead just wanted to wait for more siblings to arrive to back them up. However, Diego couldn’t help but to take it personally. 

“I’d rather stay here,” he said casually. 

The house began to shake again, and Five’s attention flickered between him and Vanya. “Fine, but don’t run your mouth and make things worse. These training sessions are already hard enough as it is.” With that, he was gone. Diego watched as Five tried to calm Vanya only to end up slammed against the wall. He clenched his hands into fists, torn between running to check on Five or trying to confront Vanya himself. 

Five was already back on his feet. He teleported over to Vanya. “Concentrate on what you hear.” For a moment Diego thought it might work. Vanya had closed her eyes and was breathing in deeply. The tension in Five’s shoulders eased up ever so slightly, and Diego followed his lead. He counted to ten before things were set off again. 

“Stop telling me what to do!” Vanya lashed out and would have fully decapitated Five if he hadn’t managed to portal right then. As it was, the smallest trickle of blood had already formed on his neck. No larger than a shaving nick, it still caused both Five and Diego to pale, especially when Vanya didn’t even acknowledge how serious the injury had nearly been.

Diego shook off the shock first and moved to stand between Five and Vanya. “Look, Sis,” the title came out a bit harsher then he had originally intended, but it was that or risk the stutter coming through, “You need to stop this.”

“I don’t have to do anything!” 

He didn’t want to admit his fear, even to himself, but he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. No matter how close they might have been as children, he didn’t trust her any longer and he was pretty sure she didn’t trust him. It didn’t matter what the others said or felt. Diego was pretty sure that he and Vanya would always be on edge with each other. 

As if reading his thoughts, his sister launched another attack. Diego dodged, knowing the attack was too high up to hit Five even if he wasn’t currently still sitting on the ground. He managed to avoid most of the attack, but the edge of it still sliced across the side of his face, almost perfectly lining up with the scar that was already there. 

“All of you think you’re so much better than me,” Vanya continued on. Diego swiped at the blood that ran from his wound. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. They were supposed to be getting along, and now he had a wound that would definitely need to be stitched up and there wasn’t a mom to stitch it up anymore. 

He dropped his hand back down to his side without looking at how much blood now coated his fingertips. Instead, he wiped the blood off on his pants. His hand felt remarkably steady compared to how his nerves were doing. Vanya’s skin had paled. A white glow surrounded her, and Diego knew it was the end. This house would fall just like the last, and which family member would he lose this time? 

“You’re not better than me!”

The house shook. If Luther and Allison had been home, they would have already come running. Luther, ready to use himself as the giant self-sacrificing shield he always tried to be, and Allison, ready to kick ass if it was an enemy or administer hugs if it was Vanya. As it was Klaus and Ben appeared instead. Ben, who was currently in his corporeal form, jumped to be a shield instead while Klaus’s gaze flitted between his siblings to assess the situation. 

“Vanya, I am not certain what upset you, but why don’t we try talking things out before anyone gets hurt?” Ben kept his voice calm while he addressed their sister. He was doing a hell of a lot better than Diego or even Klaus would have managed. 

“Someone’s already been hurt,” Klaus muttered under his breath. Grasping Diego’s chin, he tilted his head to examine the fresh wound. 

“It’s fine,” Diego muttered while shrugging him off. It wasn’t though. Diego’s legs felt like gelatin. His body was suddenly cold. How much blood was he losing?

Dots appeared in his vision while his ears slowly clogged over. In front of him, Klaus’s eyes widened. His lips were moving, forming words that Diego couldn’t hear. Down. He was going down. 

When he opened his eyes again, it was to four anxious siblings hovering over him. Vanya’s face was blotchy, and tears streamed down her face. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” 

Diego was getting kind of tired of hearing that. 

Klaus and Ben were clutching at his arms while Five stood near his head. Diego’s stomach twisted as he realized he had woken up too soon, and then he was dropping again, but not into unconsciousness, unfortunately. 

“N-nonononononono” His lower lip was trembling. “P-please, B-b-bubby,” he looked to Klaus, because he was the one who usually gave in first. Klaus fidgeted. He looked to Five and then back at Diego. 

“I’m sorry, baby bro, but we have to do this. It’ll be over soon,” he promised. “And Ben and I will hold your hands the entire time. 

Ben quickly agreed. Diego was fully crying by that point. 

Vanya didn’t understand what was happening. She had never seen her brother behave in such a way before, but Five, Ben, and Klaus didn’t even seem the least bit surprised. Ben shushed Diego and wiped away some of the tears while Klaus pressed a stuffed chick against Diego’s chest. Five had popped in with it while Ben and Klaus had worked together to carry Diego to the infirmary. As for Five, he was running one gloved hand through Diego’s hair while the other held the needle out of Diego’s line of sight. 

Five’s gaze flickered up to Vanya then back to their brother. “Do you want a paci?”

Diego sniffled. “Y-yes.” 

“Vanya, could you get one of the pacifiers out of that light blue case there and bring it over?”

Vanya shut down the anger trying to brew in her at the idea that she had once again been kept out of the loop and instead did as she was asked. 

“You keep a kit in here?” Klaus asked. 

“I like to be prepared.” 

“How many other kits are there?” 

“Enough,” Five assured. Vanya stood there holding the pacifier and not knowing exactly what to do. Klaus gently plucked it from her grasp then slipped it into Diego’s mouth. 

“That’s better, isn’t it?” Klaus cooed. Diego still looked upset. 

“Music,” Vanya blurted out. 

The others looked at her like she had grown an extra head. 

“Would you like me to play for you?” She asked Diego. It was something she had done when they were younger. Whenever one of them was nervous in the infirmary, she would play something on her violin or her guitar while Grace patched them up. Diego had always been the most receptive to it. 

Diego nodded shakily. 

“It will take awhile for the numbing agent to begin working,” Five murmured. Vanya took that as her cue to run off and grab whichever instrument was closest. She returned with her guitar and after a moment began playing a piece that she knew was one of Diego’s favorites. 

He visibly calmed after only a few few notes. Then Five worked quickly to clean and stitch the wound. It took longer than any of them would have liked to get the wound fully stitched and patched up, but Diego stayed calm the entire time, eventually even drifting off into a peaceful slumber. 

“He’s never going to get to bed at a decent hour if he takes a nap now,” Five grumbled. 

“After all the excitement today, he may just stay in littlespace for the rest of the night. We’ll need to prepare for that,” Ben added. 

“Is this another one of those things I’m not supposed to know about?” Vanya’s words came out a bit harsher than she intended, but she kept strumming the guitar. 

Klaus sighed. “None of us were supposed to know.” 

Between the three of them, they explained a bit. They told her what was going on and how each of them found out. They finished their spiel by telling her that if she wanted to be involved she would have to ask Diego when he was in a more stable state of mind. 

“And Luther doesn’t know?”

“Not yet,” Five replied. “But with how things are going, I would say it’s inevitable that he will find out at some point.” 

“But all of the rest of you are involved?” 

“Yes, and again, if you want to be involved, you will have to ask Diego when he returns to his big state.”

Vanya pondered that for a few moments. Honestly, it was all a bit overwhelming. She wasn't really a kid person anyway. Well, she liked kids, those old enough to take lessons from her, but she liked how they showed up, she taught them some music, and then they went home again. Outside of teaching them to play instruments, she wasn’t sure what to do with children. 

“Do…do you think that if he would be willing to let me be involved in this that it could be…on a lesser level?” 

Ben made a face. “What do you mean?”

Vanya struggled to find the words. 

“I think she means more of a vodka aunt than a wine mom.” Klaus teased. 

Vanya gave him a grateful smile. “I always planned to have more dogs than kids,” she admitted. 

Five finished patching up Diego, and Ben woke him. “C’mon, Sweetheart, time to wake up.” 

Diego was still in littlespace, and after shaking off the remainders of sleep, he stared carefully at Vanya. 

“S-safe?” 

Vanya’s fingers paused over the guitar strings. “I am so sorry, Diego. I shouldn’t have hurt you.”

“Safe?” he repeated. 

“Safe,” Five confirmed. “Right, Vanya?”

Vanya nodded slowly. “Right. Safe.”

It was like a switch flipped. Diego went from scared to delighted. He begged her for more music, and she was unable to resist his requests. She played for a long time. Diego clapped his hands in delight. After awhile, Five went off to work on some project and Ben had to return to his noncorporeal form. Klaus waited for a few more songs, and then Diego’s attention began to fade. 

“Hungry.” 

“It looks like it’s time for dinner.” Klaus got Diego up and looked at Vanya. “Will you be joining us?”

A little over a week later, Vanya was playing for Diego again. In his littlespace, he danced along with the music, and she had to fight to hide her laughter at how cute he looked. She and Diego had talked. It was awkward. It was painful. There were apologies and questions and eventually understanding on both parts, and while not everything was resolved, they both felt better at the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was the hardest to write. I'm not a big Vanya & Diego fan in any capacity because I think there's a lot of things that still need to be resolved between the two of them. (also, I'm not fond of their pseudo incest plot in the comics) I still wanted to include her though.
> 
> The next chapter is actually the one I was most looking forward to writing.  
> Oh, and I saw someone had made a comment about Luther and Diego but then deleted it before I could reply, and I just wanted to let that person know that I am as excited about that chapter as they are.


	7. Big Brother Luther

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally Luther's turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got away from me. lol

It had been just over a week and a half since Vanya had found out, and if Diego wasn’t secretly terrified of what Luther’s reaction would be, he wouldn’t even bother hiding things any longer. However, a stubborn part of him still refused to reveal what he considered his weakness to even one more person, even if it would mean no longer having to worry about hiding things. 

“Are you sure about this?” Klaus asked again. Diego resisted the urge to swing his legs back and forth while he sat the exam table for Five to check over his stitches.

“You’ve been looking forward to this trip. There’s no reason for you to not go.”

Klaus gestured to Diego’s head. “No reason?” he exclaimed. “You realize that while I’m gone, it means Ben will also be gone. I mean, he can check in on you, but he can’t go corporeal. He also won’t be able to tell anyone else if there’s a problem, except me, and that will mean I have to find a phone, call here, and hope that someone answers in a timely manner. You could get your head stuck in a banister in that that amount of time!”

“He’s on a roll today,” Five murmured. “Vanya’s not going to be here either this weekend. She’s staying at her apartment because they have those extra practices, so there’s not even a risk of anything happening there. Besides, Diego has promised to stay in for the weekend, so there’s no need to worry about accidental drops outside of the house.”

Diego sighed. “I haven’t been having any accidental drops.”

“But you were recently traumatized, so -”

“Klaus,” Five interrupted. “He will be fine. I will be here. No infection by the way.”

“Are you sure?” Klaus asked. “Because his face was flushed earlier.”

“I had been working out. Of course, my face was flushed.”

“Actually, you are running a slight fever,” Five confirmed. “It’s not from your wound though. It’s more likely that you caught that bug Klaus had a few days ago.”

By that point Klaus was waving his arms so much that Diego was worried that they might actually go flying off. “See!”

“Dave!” Diego called out. “If you’re there, please tell your boyfriend how ridiculous he’s being.”

Klaus had introduced them all to Dave as soon as he was confident enough in his abilities. They had all loved him. Only Luther had been slightly disappointed, and that only had been because the shovel talks he had planned for a female partner, male partner, nonbinary partner, and even a polyamorous situation had not been effective at all for a ghost. “He’s already dead. He has nothing to lose.” 

“I think your poetic reminder of how Klaus cries when he’s disappointed was enough for Dave.” Allison had tried to console. 

Thankfully, Dave was there when Diego needed him. At least, Diego assumed he was because Klaus had turned and talking over his shoulder. Diego listened to the one side of the conversation and tried to add things from that context. 

“You and Dave deserve your weekend getaway. Don’t disappoint your boyfriend just because I have a little cold.” 

Klaus and a few of his new friends from the addicts anonymous meetings had planned a getaway to some mountain retreat to do outdoorsy things of some sort. Diego had determined that meant more sitting around in plushy cabins and eating s’mores while watching bad movies. Originally, Klaus hadn’t wanted to go, but he had apparently mentioned it to Dave during one of his many many visits and Dave had gotten all excited because he had camped out at that same mountain years ago when he was young. So Klaus had decided to go if only to give Dave a chance to view it again and spend a few corporeal hours there. Diego had no interest in knowing what Dave might be doing out in the middle of nowhere on a mountain during those few corporeal hours, but Klaus had told him in excruciatingly descriptive detail just what their exact plans for their trip consisted of. 

There was a bit more conversation, and then Klaus was looking over his older shoulder. “You too, Ben?” He raised an eyebrow. “Really?” He let out a long sigh. 

“Are you sure you have this handled?” He was asking Five and not Diego himself, but if that was what it took for Klaus to have his getaway, Diego would play along. “You remember that Allison won’t be back until next week right?” Allison’s trip had been extended when poor Claire had somehow managed to break her leg during her soccer game. 

Five was not the most indulgent of the siblings. When he babysat Diego, he wasn’t as likely to give in when the little asked for sweets instead of vegetables or wanted to paint on himself instead of on the paper. He adhered to the schedule as much as possible, and while Diego didn’t always like it as a toddler, he appreciated it whenever he emerged from his littlespace and wasn’t suffering from a sugar overload or exhausted from skipping his expected nap. 

“Delores and I have things handled,” Five promised. 

Klaus rocked on his heels. “Okay. Okay, I give. I will take a nice vacation with my loving boyfriend.”

Diego hopped off the exam table and clapped Klaus on the shoulder. “Good for you.” He was looking forward to a few days of being able to do things without a sibling popping in to check up on him every few hours just to make sure he hadn’t dropped. Of course, Ben had assured him that they all checked on each other just as often and that it was a part of recovering, but it didn’t feel the same. 

Klaus left for his getaway, and Diego was left alone in their big new house with only the twins for company. With Luther not knowing his secret and Five preoccupied with yet another project, Diego was determined to have a a fully adult weekend. Well, except for his usual Saturday morning play date. Five had insisted that Delores was looking forward to it, and it was just easier not to disappoint the two of them. 

Friday was an easy day. The three brothers ate breakfast silently. None of them were morning people, and Luther had actually produced a pretty tasty breakfast. Diego had done some light sparring with Luther, nothing rough enough that Five would say was worsening his cold (and, in fact, just to be extra sure he avoided any lectures, after lunch, he lounged about on the couch switching between tv and books). Apparently, his efforts at behaving didn’t go unnoticed because after dinner, Five cornered him. 

“I suppose you could just come find me if you need me,” Five told him. “Otherwise, I’ll see you midmorning. Whenever Luther goes out.” 

Ten o’clock on the dot. That was exactly the time Luther went out every single Saturday. He was never back before lunch, and usually he went back out in the evenings whenever the local coffee shop had its poetry nights. Diego wasn’t going to look into that one. He knew too much as it was.

“What’s he got planned tomorrow?” 

Five’s nose wrinkled. “He’s apparently going to some knitting club.”

“Let me guess. Klaus recommended it?” 

“Yep.”

Great. The house was going to be covered in knitted items. The stair railings, every mug, and at one point even the toilet seats had all been covered in colorful prints when Klaus was at his peak knitting phase. No doubt Luther was going to be just as bad. 

At least he had a quiet weekend to prepare himself. He didn’t see either of his brothers for the rest of the night or even at breakfast the next morning. It wasn’t until Luther tossed a “goodbye” over his shoulder on his way out that Diego realized they were awake.

The moment the door clicked close behind Luther, Five popped in. “Shall we?” They had their usual play session. Diego let himself drop easily, and he spent the morning performing child-friendly science experiments in the kitchen. Lunch was colorful and well-balanced. Though Five did allow him one handful of marshmallows as a treat. He woke from his nap, already out of his littlespace. That tended to happen on Saturdays. 

“Luther home yet?” he asked groggily. 

“Not yet.” Five barely glanced up from his notes. “Your fever has gone up slightly.”

Diego could feel that, not that he would tell his brother. “I hear that happens with colds.”

“I read that many littles tend to drop when they’re feverish. Does that apply to you?” 

Diego shrugged. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been sick,” he admitted. He released a sigh and sat up, eager to get out of the more juvenile pajamas and back into his normal clothes. “Don’t worry about it though. I doubt it’ll get that bad, and I’m just going to rest this weekend anyway.”

He tugged on a black sweater and after a moment, decided on a plain pair of sweatpants to go with it. “See, lounge clothes.” He gestured at his ensemble. 

Five nodded his approval. “I understand your need for alone time, so I will not hover. But remember,-”

“Come find you if I need you.” 

“I’ll be in my lab most of the night. Just let yourself in. I won’t hear you over the music. If I’m not there, I’ll be in my room.”

Diego nodded along. “Yes, yes.” It was going easier than he had planned. He had planned on having to bitch and moan about the ridiculousness of it all to get his way. He had planned a speech about how the morning session would prevent any unexpected drops. Five had just taken him at his word and left him to take care of himself for the rest of the day and the night. 

Diego kept his word about staying in and resting. It was peaceful not having any siblings randomly popping in on him. He ordered too much pizza and ate half of it in one sitting. (Something he would never do in front of his siblings after the number of times he had talked about his body being a temple.) He also grabbed himself a few cold beers, the imported ones that he rarely indulged in. He watched the first four Harry Potter movies and absolutely did not sob over Cedric. He saved the other four for the next day, planning to also not sob over-well-half his favorite characters actually. 

Stuffed with junk food and exhausted from crying over fictional worlds, Diego decided to go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour, somewhere between midnight and two (closer to two). He was in such a good mood that he even popped in on his brothers to bid them goodnight. Five had noticeably relaxed at the sight of Diego, no doubt assured that Diego would be fine until morning if he was already going to bed. Luther had blushed fiercely when Diego peeked in on him in the library. 

“Are you-are you reading Fifty Shades of Grey?” 

“Some of the people at the knitting circle were talking about. I just wanted to see why so man people liked it.”

Diego snorted. “You know that it’s not an accurate depiction of the bdsm lifestyle right?”

Luther glared. 

“I’m just saying, man, don’t be trying that shit with ladies and thinking it’s normal. It’s not.”

“I know that!” Luther threw a pillow at him. It missed him by a mile, partially because the pillow was too light to really be thrown and also because Luther wasn’t really trying to hit him. Diego laughed as Luther grumbled about annoying brothers. “Did you have a reason for coming in here other than to mock me?” Luther asked. 

Diego shrugged. “I just wanted to say goodnight. I’m heading up to bed.”

Luther looked surprisingly touched by that. “Oh um- good night then. I’ll see you at brunch? I’ll cook for us.” 

Diego really had no idea how Luther had managed to live entirely alone for four years. The poor guy was practically desperate for company even when living in a house with half a dozen siblings. 

“Yeah, I think I can manage to get up that early as long as you’re fixing that quiche thing again.”

Luther nodded. “I can do that.”

Diego didn’t bother changing when he got to his room. He just climbed into bed in his lounge clothes. It was cold enough to sleep in a sweater. A gentle rain was falling outside, and it lulled Diego to sleep within only moments of his head hitting the pillow.

In his dreams, he saw Eudora. There she stood in a way that only he had known her. Hair loose, dressed in cute pajamas, and giggling. Not laughing or snorting or chuckling. Full out giggling. It made his heart clench. She leaned over him on the bed and reached out a hand. He could feel her touch. He could smell her lotion mixed with the scent of the station’s coffee. Her voice echoed through his mind. She called him her baby while running her fingers through his hair. After a few moments, she pulled away. 

“Eudora.” He reached out, desperate for her touch again, but when he tried to grasp her hand he was met with only air. He kept clawing at where he hand was. Nothing. He could feel nothing. Eudora watched him patiently. 

“Oh, my sweet little baby, I think someone’s had an accident.” 

That was when he woke up. He searched the room for her. He glanced over every corner, but she wasn’t there. She wouldn’t be there. Klaus couldn’t even summon her. He had tried countless times since things had calmed, but eventually, he had found that she had moved on almost instantly. The other ghosts whispered rumors of moving on to a better plane to reunite with lost loved ones. Diego knew that it was supposed to help. He was supposed to be happy that she hadn’t lingered in a painful ghostly state, unable to communicate with those she loved, but he wanted her with him. He needed her. 

He shifted in his bed, planning on grabbing Patches from the end-table. Not because he was going to drop. He just-he liked holding Patches when he wanted to remember Eudora. As he moved, he felt an oddly cold spot in his bed, and dreamEudora’s words came back to him. 

No no nononononononno he was not feeling what he thought he was feeling. He carefully moved his legs again and winced at the dampness he found beneath him. It was too localized to be sweat, and the slight scent coming off it made it obvious what had happened. 

“Shit,” he mumbled, not bothering to fight off the tears he could feel brimming. He shoved the blankets to the end of the bed. “Shit.” He climbed out of the bed and tried to figure out where to even start. He had never wet the bed before. Not without being in littlespace and already being diapered. Even those times had been rare, the last time nearly half a year ago. 

His sweatpants clung to his skin. He felt disgusting. “Shit!” he screamed the last one between sobs. 

The door to his bedroom flew open, and suddenly Diego had a whole new reason to cry as Luther came running inside. “Are you okay? I heard screaming.” 

“It’s n-nothing. Get out!”

“Nuh-uh. If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be screaming like that. What’s wrong?” Big dumb overprotective brothers. Diego wrapped his arms around himself as Luther searched the room for any sign of a threat. He could see Luther piecing together what had happened, and he braced himself for the teasing to begin. 

Luther let out a long exhale. “Oh, that’s all.” 

Diego let out a hysterical chuckle. “T-that’s all?” He scoffed. “I just w-wet the bed like some b-b-baby. N-nothing to s-say about it?” 

“Accidents happen,” Luther offered. “And Five mentioned that you were sick earlier. That probably didn’t help things. You should go wash up. I’ll get this stuff into the laundry.” 

Diego blinked. “Y-you don’t have to-”

Luther gave a little dismissive wave. “I’ve got this. Unless you need some help getting out of those and into the bath first.”

“W-why w-w-would I need…?” He trailed off. Did Luther somehow know? 

Luther took a few steps toward him but stopped before he was in his personal space. “You should hurry. You’re already cold enough that you’re shaking.” 

Diego glanced down to see that he was indeed trembling like a leaf. How had he not noticed? 

“Do…do you want me to help you?” Luther offered again, and Diego was surprised to hear no judgement in his tone, only concern. 

Diego licked nervously at his lips, fighting the urge to bring his thumb up to his mouth. “Y-you know?” 

There was a moment of silence before Luther responded. “Yeah, I know.” 

“Everything?”

“Pretty much.”

“H-how?”

Luther smiled then. “You think I wouldn’t notice that all of my siblings were suddenly hiding something from me?”

Diego clutched at his own arms. “T-too ob-bvious?”

Luther nodded. “Amazingly so.” 

“H-how long?”

“About three months.” Longer than Vanya. Longer than Allison even. Diego shivered, drawing Luther’s attention to his current state again. “Before we get discuss this further, you need a bath. So, do you want me to help you or not?”

“I’m n-not l-little right now.”

“But you could drop at any moment.” 

Oh. He knew quite a bit then.

“I do read accurate books too,” Luther explained as if reading his mind. 

Diego snorted. “I…I guess you…could…help. If you want.” No stutter that time, but it was only because he released each word so slowly. Painfully so.

“C’mon then.” Luther guided Diego to the closest bathroom. He ran the water in the bath and even added some of Klaus’s bubbles to it. He stopped the water before it was even half full then he turned to Diego. Diego had shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it aside. The fever made his head too hot and the rest of him too cold. He hesitated at the pants. He had no interest in feeling the damp fabric slide down his legs. 

Luther reached for the drawstrings, and Diego had to will himself to not move as his brother untied the bow there and grabbed hold of his waistband. “Hold still, and we can maybe get these off of you without it touching any other part of you.” 

Luther was extremely careful in holding the fabric as far from Diego’s skin as he could manage while lowering the pants down and true enough, Diego didn’t feel any dampness spreading. 

“Raise your left foot.” 

Diego braced himself on his brother’s shoulder and did as instructed. 

“Now your right foot.” 

Diego was left standing naked while Luther gathered the pants and placed them into one of the bags kept in the bathrooms for bloody clothes. Once the dirty clothes were out of the way, Luther helped Diego into the bath as if he were in his littlespace. Which he wasn’t. Not yet anyway. 

“Will you be okay on your own for a few minutes while I get the laundry started, or should I stay until you finish in here and then go?” 

“Y-you,” Diego inhaled deeply and concentrated. “Can go to bed. I-I’ve got it from here.” He didn’t need to wait for Luther to return with clothes for him. He could wear a towel back to his room. Hell, he could walk back naked. It wasn’t like his sisters were home. All he had to do was get redressed, throw the laundry in, make up the bed with spare sheets-if the mattress hadn’t gotten wet anyway, and then go back to sleep. Actually, that sounded like a lot. 

“Can you promise me that you’re not going to drop soon?” Luther’s voice was soft, gentle even. Diego would be lying if he said he hadn’t heard that tone before. For as much shit as he gave him, Luther was actually a pretty good brother, even if he was socially awkward as hell. 

Diego hugged his knees up to his chest. He wanted to lie to Luther, but what would be the point in that. 

“I m-might drop.” 

“I can get Five for you.” 

Diego sighed. Five had looked so eager to work on his project, and Diego was tired of everyone putting aside their projects just to look after him. 

“Or if you don’t mind, I could look after you this time.”

Diego snorted again.“Y-you really w-want to?” 

“Yes.” Luther’s reply was instant. There was no hesitation at all, and maybe that was what Diego should have expected all along. 

“T-tell me h-how y-you know, a-and I w-w-w.” Fuck. Why was it suddenly so difficult? “Y-you c-can stay.” 

Luther relaxed and took a seat next to the bath so that they were closer to the same eye level. Dressed in a thin tank and a pair of sleep pants, Luther actually looked a bit smaller than his day clothes indicated, but Diego could see that he was uncomfortable. He rested his hand on Luther’s wrist. If Luther thought that was weird, he didn’t show it. 

He couldn’t remember actually touching Luther’s new body before that night. Well, not counting gloved hands, bundled up hugs, sparring sessions, and that one time-out moment when he had tried to beat up Five only to have Luther grab him and hold him in his annoying form of a time-out. None of those counted though. This was different. This was Luther allowing himself to be vulnerable because Diego currently didn’t have a choice in showing his own vulnerability. The hair on Luther’s arm was soft. Kind of like a cat’s fur. Diego felt himself calming.

“Y-you didn’t just read it randomly.” 

“Remember how I…had relations with that woman from the club?”

Diego nodded slightly, not really in the mood to tease Luther about his language choice. He remembered Klaus telling them about the hook up. It had been funny at first. Later, when he had heard more details, Diego had decided that it had just been sad and an unfair situation for his brother who had been too out of it to even realize what was happening.

“Well, that woman slept with me because she was into furries. I asked Klaus about it later. My mistake by the way.”

Diego chuckled a little. Klaus explaining kinks to people that were not him was a funny enough thought at least. 

“And well, he explained enough for me to know I needed to do more research. That led to researching other things. Anyway, one Wednesday I came home earlier usual. I guess you, Klaus, and Ben didn’t hear me, and I overheard a few things, enough to make me curious enough to look up more.”

“Y-you didn’t ask about it.”

“You didn’t want to tell people yet. I didn’t want you to be upset that I knew. I thought you would just tell me when you were ready.”

Diego nodded slowly. That made sense. 

“I-I didn’t t-tell the others. F-found out alone.” 

He didn’t want Luther to think he had purposely excluded only him. Vanya had thought that, and that had very nearly not turned out well. 

“I know,” Luther assured. Despite how calm Luther was acting, Diego could still feel how awkward the situation was. It seemed like it was getting to Luther too. “I’m going to go toss everything into the laundry. It shouldn’t take me more than five minutes.” 

It probably wouldn’t even take that long. While Luther was gone, Diego cleaned himself thoroughly, getting rid of any trace of the accident. He had showered off the bubbles and was drying himself off by the time Luther returned. 

He took another towel and began drying Diego’s hair for him while Diego wrapped the other firmly around his waist. “I-um-do you think with the fever and everything that you might nee-want to wear a diaper tonight….Just in case?” 

Diego bit down the angry outbursts that jumped to the tip of his tongue. He knew that Luther was just asking, was leaving the choice up to him even though they both knew that the diapers would be necessary that night. 

“Y-yeah,” Diego choked out the word. 

“It’s okay. Please don’t cry.” Luther frantically brushed at some of the tears that Diego hadn’t noticed building at the corner of his eyes. “I mean, I’m an astronaut.”

Diego blinked in confusion. 

“We wear diapers during the launches. I mean, they call them maximum absorbency garments, but there’s like no difference.” 

Diego let himself chuckle, and Luther breathed out a sigh of relief. 

“So what, you’re an expert at diapering now? Going to give me some tips?” Diego teased because it was better than crying right then. He wasn’t even sure how he was going to get the diaper on by himself. There were all those things to hold and pull, and he was really thinking that a pull-up would have been much better right then.

“Well, I’m not an expert, but if you can remind me which way is the front then I’m sure I can manage to get one on you.” 

Oh. Luther was going to- That meant- “You-don’t-I can-”

“Diego.” Luther rested a hand on his shoulder. “I meant it when I said I was willing to help.”

Yeah, okay. He was better than Vanya and Allison at least. Possibly better than Five who would probably want to follow some kind of twenty step diapering process. Ben would have been the best for the situation, but if Ben was available then so was Klaus, and Klaus would probably insist on accessorizing the diaper.Bless him, but he could be ridiculous at times. 

Diego fought the urge to bring his thumb up to his lips even if dropping would have been easier right then. “O-o-kay.”

Luther grinned. “I brought some clean clothes for you too. You can pick.” Luther showed the stack of clothing. In it were some of Diego’s lounge clothes, some of his little pajamas, and something that wasn’t his at all. He stared at the way over-sized sweatshirt with a space pun on it and tentatively reached for it. It was soft, softer than nearly all of Diego’s clothing. 

“I thought you might want to borrow it. It’s warm,” Luther explained sheepishly. Diego nodded and lifted his arms. Maybe if he acted like he was in littlespace, it would help him to drop before they got to the embarrassing part of the night. (well, more embarrassing part)

Luther tugged the sweatshirt over his head. It must have been large even on Luther because on Diego it reached to just a few inches above his knees. 

“After we get your diaper on, you can pick out whatever pants you might want.” 

Being naked in the locker room showers or even in a bathtub was different than being nearly naked on a bed, waiting for someone to fasten on a diaper. Diego stared up at the ceiling, so that he wouldn’t have to look at his brother. He didn’t understand why the one time he really needed and wanted to he couldn’t force himself to fully drop. He was definitely partially there. He was close enough to agree the diaper was going to be necessary for once, but he was dropped enough to fully shake off the embarrassment. He fiddled with the hem of the sweatshirt that had been bunched up to his waist while Luther slid the diaper under him and worked on fastening it on straight. 

It was when Luther finished with the diaper and instinctively reached to pick up Diego by lifting under his arms that Diego finally dropped. 

The feeling of Diego’s arms around his neck was not unfamiliar, but that night, Luther knew it was different than Diego’s usual attempts at a stranglehold. He lifted Diego fully off the bed and felt legs wrap tightly around his waist at the movement. 

“Do you want some pants now?” 

“N-no, B-bubby. S-sleep n-now.” Diego yawn against Luther’s shoulder. The warmth from the bath had left Diego’s skin, and Luther was able to feel the slight fever still running through his brother’s body. Fever, thunderstorm, probably a few nightmares from how Diego had looked when Luther burst into his bedroom. What a trying night for a baby. 

“Okay, Baby.”

He held Diego with one arm in order to straighten his bed with the other. Diego’s bedclothes were still in the laundry, and Luther wasn’t about to let him out of his sight right then anyway. Thunder rumbled close by, causing Diego to cling tighter to him. 

“Shhh,” he soothed and moved over to his record player. “That’s just the storm coming back, but it can’t hurt you.” He found the record he was looking for and carefully put it on. The sound of The Tokens covered most of the thunder, and only then did Luther slip Diego off his hip and onto the bed. He climbed in next to them, pulled the covers tightly around them, and let Diego curl against his chest, hoping that in the morning his brother wouldn’t be too angry at him for the events of the night.

The morning came too soon. Way too soon. Luther could have handled another two hours of sleep himself, but there was a finger poking his cheek. 

“Diego,” he groaned. 

“H-hungry.” 

Luther sighed and climbed out of bed, moving halfway on autopilot as he had often done in space. Find need, fix need, wake up fully after food. He scooped Diego up and easily balanced him on his hip only to place his right back down on the bed after a moment. 

“Diaper first,” he mumbled. He swapped out the wet diaper for a fresh one and then picked Diego back up again. 

He made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Diego refused to be placed in a chair, so Luther prepared breakfast one-handed. Every few minutes, he would shift Diego from one hip to the other. 

“Extra cheese?” 

Diego nodded eagerly, and Luther dumped more cheese into the quiche before sliding it into the oven. He heard Diego’s stomach rumble. “Let’s get you a bottle until all this is finished. How’s that, Baby?”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a bottle was pressed into his hand. Luther blinked while Five stared up smugly. “Well, sit down and get that into him. I’ll handle taking the things out if you’ll tell me when.” 

Luther stumbled over to a chair, pulling Diego to sit fully in his lap. “He can hold the bottle himself,” Klaus whispered while placing a fresh cup of coffee in front of him. Luther blinked. Diego happily greeted Klaus the same way he had waved at Five a moment earlier. 

Everyone was in the kitchen. Five, Klaus, Vanya, Allison, and even Ben. 

“I thought all of you were out,” Luther mumbled, embarrassed that he had somehow walked by all of them without noticing in his morning daze. 

“Trip got called early when the storm moved there, so Ben and I came back. Don’t worry though, Dave and I are already planning another trip up there to pick up there where they left off.” He hopped over to hand the others their coffees. 

“And the rest of you?

“Power went out at the theater, so we don’t have practice until tonight,” Vanya explained while setting plates down on the table. 

Allison glanced up from where she was preparing the fresh fruit. “I took an earlier flight because there is supposed to be a worse storm tomorrow.” 

Vanya sighed. “Maybe there won’t be practice tonight either,” she mumbled. 

“Where Klaus goes, I go,” Ben had taken as seat next to them and was wiping at the sleep gunk in the corners of Diego’s eyes.

“I was already supposed to be here, in case you forgot” Five chimed in. “This,” he waved around at the room with the hand that was not currently clutching his coffee. “was all a bit surprising though.” 

“Yeah,” Luther mumbled. 

“One of us could take him, if you needed a break,” Allison offered suddenly. All five of them reached out to Diego, and Luther prepared himself to have Diego go running off. Instead he grabbed a fistful of Luther’s tank top and snuggled closer to him. 

“Is he okay?” Klaus asked. His gaze was on Diego’s diaper which wouldn’t have been visible at all with the long sweatshirt except that Diego was currently straddling his lap. 

“He’s fine. Just a lot of stuff happened last night.”

Five reached over to feel Diego’s forehead. “His fever’s down, but those might be necessary for another night.”

“So you found out then?” Klaus asked. “I wish I could have seen your face.”

“He’s known for awhile,” Ben revealed. “Who do you think has been leaving all those extra presents in Diego’s room and besides that he’s also-”

“Ben,” Luther interrupted and nodded down at Diego who was staring up with curious eyes.

“Oh right, don’t want to ruin the surprise,” Ben said with a grin. 

They ate breakfast together (because it was breakfast at that hour and not brunch. LittleDiego was apparently better at waking up early than his big self. All the others (except Ben) pestered Luther about how he knew and how much he knew. 

Near the end of the meal, Diego began to emerge from his littlespace. Luther felt him grow tense, and then it was like he was fighting the urge to either run out of the room or hide his face against Luther’s shirt. In the end he chose to slide into the closest empty chair instead. He tugged at the sweatshirt to make sure the diaper wasn’t showing. 

The others seemed to notice the awkwardness and thankfully all excused themselves with various things they had take care of. 

“Sorry about last night,” Diego murmured once they were alone. 

Luther blinked slowly. “Hey, no, it wasn’t a problem. There’s nothing for you to apologize for. If anything, I should have been better at making sure that you-”

“No, no, you did everything right,” Diego insisted.

“Five mentioned that since you’re still sick, you might still need to be diapered tonight.”

Diego nodded. 

“I’m sure one of the others could-”

“No, you please….if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. Are you going to go change for the day, since you’re big now?” 

Diego shifted around. “What’s the point really? Everyone knows, so I don’t need to hide it, and if Five thinks I still might need the diapers tonight then what’s the point of taking them off if I might drop at any time until this cold is over.”

“You’re going to wear diapers all day then?”

Diego sighed. “Just until this cold is gone.”

Luther nodded, and Diego reached past his bottle for the rest of Luther’s coffee. He took a sip and grimaced. “How much creamer do you put in here?”

Luther chuckled. “Hardly any compared to how much sugar you put in yours.” Luther waited until Diego drained the rest of the coffee to speak again. “I have a surprise for you,” he mumbled nervously.

“Yeah? What is it?” 

“I can show you.” He stood and started to reach down to pick up Diego before he remembered that his brother didn’t need him to carry him right then. “Oh, sorry.”

Diego reached up his arms. “The floor is cold, and I’m tired.”

“You really think you’re going to have me carrying you around while you’re big?”

“Well, you can do it willingly, or you can wait for me to just surprise jump on you at any moment.” 

They stared each other down. It was Luther who broke first, bursting out into laughter while he reached down to scoop up Diego. “I guess I can think of it as another workout.”

“You do that. Now what’s this surprise anyway?” He cuddled against Luther, feeling sleepy from waking up too early and eating such a big breakfast. If anyone saw him cuddling, he could just blame it on the fever or something. 

“I sort of went ahead and added a few things without telling the rest of you.” The words came out low and rushed, the way they always did when Luther was afraid that his siblings would be angry. 

Diego yawned. He was too comfortable to be angry at anything right then. “What did you do?”

“I added a room for you. It’s just…you didn’t ask for anything. I’ve got my music lounge, Allison got that huge dressing room, Klaus got his spa bathroom, Five has his lab, Vanya has her music studio. Even Ben has a private reading room for when he’s corporeal. But you didn’t ask for anything. You just saw the gym and said that was enough, but that’s something we all use regularly, so it wasn’t really yours.”

Diego shrugged. “I didn’t want anything.”

“I know, but I thought that maybe you would…one day. I just wanted to be prepared.”

Of course, he would. 

“And then after I found out about-everything, I took the liberty of filling your room.”

Luther stopped in front of a room that Diego vaguely recalled snooping in when it was first built and then quickly losing interest in it when it appeared to be just an overly large storage room. 

“Just…try not to be too angry with me.”

“I’m too tired to be angry,” Diego assured. Luther slowly turned the knob and opened the door. The room had been turned into a nursery. There was a large crib, a rocking recliner, a dresser, and dozens of toys. The ceiling had stars painted on it. The walls had colorful murals that looked like they had been taken from fairytales. Luther had painted them himself. Diego could tell by the style of the characters. 

“I know it’s a bit much, but I thought it would help if you had a place where you could escape to and feel safe when you dropped even if we were all out or something, and it’s probably ridiculous but-”

Diego knocked the breath out of Luther when he hugged him. After a moment of shock, Luther returned the embrace. 

“It’s okay then?” 

“Yeah, it’s okay. Everything’s okay now.” 

For once, Diego truly believed it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it then. I had so much fun writing this one that I might dive back into some little!Diego fics in the future.


End file.
